Challenges and New Frontiers of Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robots
Hydraulically actuated hexapod robots form a very useful class of walking robots in the context of service robotics, field robotics, search and rescue, and high-risk operations. It can also be utilized as a test bed for designing and validating various ga
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Challenges and New Frontiers of Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robots
Abstract Hydraulically actuated hexapod robots form a very useful class of walking robots in the context of service robotics, field robotics, search and rescue, and high-risk operations. It can also be utilized as a test bed for designing and validating various gaits and walking behaviors. A lot of potential applications would be possible with the advent of various technologies associated with the design and manufacturing of such robots. A concise description has been presented for the potential application areas of hydraulically actuated hexapod walking robots.
10.1
Introduction
The era of modern robotics began about 50 years back when the company named Unimation, established by D. Engelberger, designed and constructed the first industrial robot and launched it commercially in 1960 [1]. Since then, the research and development on industrial robots gathered new momentum and numerous new and improved industrial robotic manipulators were successfully applied for factory automation in various industries [17]. The technology of industrial manipulator has gone through refinements after mitigating the shortcomings of the earlier designs (like fixed program, simple control system, and weak hardware and software) to meet the performance required due to the increased mechanization and the high rates of technological operations. The technology of industrial manipulator is quite mature now and robotics engineers have successfully prototyped robotic grippers that are similar to the human hand and can perform many tasks in various manners using versatile controls through reprogramming. However, the industrial manipulators did not have any mobility and could be employed to perform a limited range of tasks; therefore, success in the development of industrial manipulator
K. Nonami et al., Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robots: Design, Implementation and Control, Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering 66, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-54349-7_10, © Springer Japan 2014
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10 Challenges and New Frontiers of Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robots
technology has inspired mankind to develop a variety of robotic devices with mobility, autonomy, and intelligence so that they can interact with the environment and alleviate the necessity of human effort and intervention in day to day activities as well as in various critical situations. This has triggered a widespread research in mobile and walking robot during the first half of the 1990s [1]. In most of the cases, the design of modern walking robots are biologically inspired, employing the observations from the biological world, with an intention to achieve optimal performance like the living creatures and then apply them in all spheres of human activity. This has been possible due to the significant advances in information processing, artificial intelligence, control theory, software, sensors, and machine vision systems. Various types of walking robots have been designed and developed
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